Thought I would start a thread to document the progress and plans to me and my dad's newly acquired R26 track car. Some of you may recognise this as Big Uno's old car. It's running something very special under the bonnet Plans: Roll cage - Not sure whether to go full or half cage, weld in or bolt in? Wider wheels and semi slick tyres - Need to get my head around which offset / size wheel to go for! Remove wheel spacers and convert to studs Few cosmetic and suspension tweaks. Some pics More pics and updates to follow!
Was wondering when the lucky new owner would surface, congrats on your purchase and look forward to seeing what you do with it!
Really pleased to see you carrying on with the car! Going to stay tuned and as you know I will always be about to help if needed
if you want the part number for the missing lower rubber lip,or want a half decent second hand one which i have in the garage.Let me know. Nearly £60 from Renault! And welcome!
Thank you all for the warm welcome! It really is a fantastic build and a testament to Big Unos skills. Me and my dad are very much looking forward to carrying on his project and turning this into the ultimate track spec megane. Yes a replacement splitter is on the list of jobs. Currently just looking at all the options that are available. Am new to Meganes so there is a lot to learn!
cupra will fit,as well as fabia with trimming .plus 1 or 2 aftermarket items. I dont think any of them look any better than the original..
Was great to meet you at Abingdon last Friday. Car looks and goes great. Look forward to seeing how the car develops.
Didn't get any videos at Abingdon unfortunately. Haven't managed to sort a mount for the GoPro yet. I guess another excuse to get the roll cafe fitted The car ran amazingly well and I was very impressed with the power delivery. It just pulls and pulls! Also have some 9" wide team dynamics wheels coming which will be getting a set of semi slicks. Probably going to go for Toyo R888R's unless anyone else has any other tyre recommendations?
Hi Simon I would try Federal 595's, on track i found AD08r's went off and i wasn't trying to put down no where near the power you have. 595's are still very good on the road as well, just be careful with standing water.
I’m not sure Federal 595s are really semi-slick tyres. I’d suggest something like Nankang AR1s or Toyo R888Rs. If you have a set of track wheels that you can fit at the track, there are lots of options.
really been pleased with my Avon ZZRs, but which are really quite pricey. lots rate the ado8r as a good cheap reasonable tyre, AR1 and R888R are great but wear quite quickly but grip is good. Ian really likes the 595s but i have not tried them..what width are you looking to run? I am on 225 and 235 but moving to 255 and 240 slicks.
Found the R888R's for a good price to will probably give them a try. Thinking of going 255 on the 9" wide wheels. Should help with putting the power down. Will likely put a set of wets on the standard R26 wheels. Anyone got any recommendations for a good wet / damp track tyre?
rainsport 3s are good as a wet track tyre cheap and work well, i am hoping to get some proper wets soon
ie when pouring down and lots of standing water, however as soon as the line starts to dry then get back to some semi slicks
Thanks for the tyre advice. Will probably go with a set of rainsports on the standard R26 alloys. Had some issues with the AC delete stretch belt slipping so have refitted a new tensioner and an AC compressor with the internals removed as recommended on here. Have sand blasted and painted the AC compressor so that it didn't stand out among all the other brand new engine parts Have also ordered a few more goodies. Oil temperature, pressure and boost gauge along with a new splitter to go on!
Spent some time on the R26 today. Installed a set of wheel studs. Should make changing over wheels at the track a bit easier! Also tried on the new Team Dynamics wheels Just need some tyres fitted now! Some more goodies have arrived. Boost, oil pressure and oil temperature gauges. I went for ones with programmable audible warnings as hard to keep an eye on all the gauges while on track. Here's the oil pressure and temperature senders installed along with a new oil filter. Where is the best place to plumb in the boost pressure sensor? I can see vacuum lines running from the BOV and fuel pressure regulator.
Think you will have to run the boost sensor off of the inlet manifold, i tried a few different pipes and couldn't get constant readings, either no vacuum or no boost
What rim width are they? Should look good with those on! Manifold pressure line wants to be as close to the manifold as possible with as short a run as possible if you want the most accurate reading you can get. To be honest your not going to be using it for actual pressure are you just as a indicator so just T off the start of the BOV line. If your using small bore silicone hose still that I put on tie it up with a cable tie not small jubilee clip as its less likely to cut into the hose long term.
Wheels are 8.5" wide and ET55 offset so I can run without spacers and still fill the arches nicely. Thanks. I'll start with T'ing off near the BOV and go from there.
If you really wanted to go all out, and monitor the turbo accurately Garrett offer a speed sensor that fits the G25. That would be really interesting to see the results from. Its something I looked at but a full set up is not cheap Boost gauges dont tell you whats going on other than you have X pressure at the test point. The OE map sensors are probably more accurate than most of the aftermarket stuff too lol. For example in this case with the G25 and 14lb gate crack off you could have a split hose or other boost leak of some sort, the turbo could be able to maintain 1.5bar even with a leak (depending on how serious it is) but it may be spinning up considerably faster to reach the 1.5bar. In that case the boost gauge will not show anything abnormal even though the turbine could potentially be spinning at the point of crapping itself
That sounds ideal but I have just seen the price of the kit Getting the new tyres fitted tomorrow. Will get an alignment at the same time. Thinking of going -2 degrees of negative camber and -5 minutes of toe out on each side (-10 minutes in total). What are peoples thoughts on this bearing in mind the car will mainly be used on the track.
did say its pricey! Not sure about toeing out with the Megane dont know what people run "track only", I set the fronts parallel as you know and it made a huge difference to the turning in and I preffered it. The camber probably wont hurt on track. Id imagine with the power and that setup it will tramline like hell on the road it was a handful as it was. Worth a try you can always adjust it if you are not happy
Spent a bit more time on the Megane this weekend. Got the R888R's fitted to the new rims. Really pleased with the fitment. They fill the arches perfectly without using any spacers. Went for -2 degrees of camber and -10 minutes total toe out for the alignment. Front wheel: Rear wheel: Also got the new gauges wired up and installed. Had an issue where the gearstick was not springing back correctly while in neutral. So took the gear selected apart and re-greased the nylon bush. Much better now!
How is it putting the power down with those tyres on? Is it still lighting them up in a straight line? Nice job, like that you are carrying on with her!
It has completely transformed the car. Feels like a different animal now! Can't wait to get it out on track again
Where did you manage to buy these from with 8.5j but et55 ? I’ve looked on Deemond tweeks and they don’t offer offset more than 45 on 5x108 at 18’s Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Speak to Rimstock. You can have TDs made to whatever size and spec you want, juat be prepared to wait
I contacted demon tweets today about a set of pro race 1.3’s in 18x8.5, 5x114.3, et55, 66.1 for my 3 rs and got this reply. “We don’t hold stock of the wheel in the sizes requested and neither do Team dynamics, these would making specifically for yourself. Team Dynamics don’t have any blanks so would be at least 30 weeks from point of order.” Hard to believe really.
